Epilogue
by DoctorGi
Summary: August 2014: Eric Beale resigns from NCIS, two days after an attempt on his life cost him his sister and her husband, leaving their two years-old daughter in his care, disappearing with her in Thailand. March 2017: While trying to rescue one of their own, the OSP team encounters an old acquaintance, in the person of Eric Beale. The question: can he be convinced to work with them?
1. Chapter 1

**Complete summary:** August 2014: Eric Beale resigns from NCIS, two days after an attempt on his life cost him his sister and her husband, leaving their two years-old daughter in his care, disappearing with her in Thailand. March 2017: While trying to rescue one of their own, the OSP team encounters an old acquaintance, in the person of Eric Beale. Can he be convinced to rejoin the job that got killed his family or will he stay away for the sake of what's left of his family? Eric/OC, Kensi/Deeks and maybe Nell/Callen.

**Authors' Notes:** This is once again another collaboration between my best friend, the marvelous Nina and I. English still isn't our first language (some things don't change over time, alas) so if you notice anything weird, any grammatical mistakes, do not hesitate to point it out, it would only help us. We don't bite, I swear. So, uhm, what else is there to say? Oh yeah, warnings for possible character/s death/s (we have like three different endings) because who doesn't like a good dash of angst? Enjoy your reading! (And have a great, happy satisfying life, that's important too.)

We own our creative minds, our common desire to torture our favorite character, a few original characters more or less important, and this fanfiction. That's all.

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**Epilogue.**

**Chapter 1.**

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_Today you were far away  
and I didn't ask you why  
What could I say?  
I was far away  
You just walked away  
and I just watched you  
What could I say ?_

_\- About Today, The National_

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_August 14th, 2014._

_White Memorial Hospital, Los Angeles._

In many movies, the saddest moment happens under a heavy rain but as much as Eric Beale would love his life to be a movie –_or better, a musical_-, it's not. It's the warmest day of the year in Los Angeles when he gets shot and that's definitely not the worst thing of the day.

He wakes up in a hospital room and _everything_ hurts. Kensi's asleep at his right, holding his hand in her own. She looks exhausted and Eric can't really remember why he's there or why Kensi's crying when she realize he's awake.

"The LAPD called Hetty yesterday, they said you got shot. We couldn't believe it, at first but when we saw the car—You've been so lucky to survive." Kensi confided, still feeling the shudder of horror that filled her mind when she got to the scene of the shooting.

The car. He was driving Debra, Mickey and their daughter to the airport. He stopped at a red light and-

"My sister, her husband-" he gasped. "Th-They were in the car with me!"

Kensi looked down to the ground.

"I am so sorry." She whispered. "By the time the ambulance got there-"

"_No_." Eric interrupted her. It couldn't be happening, not to him. "No, please, tell me it's some kind of sick joke."

Kensi looked ready to cry again. Her friend was in denial and it was surely one of the most painful stages of grief. She went through this many times; more than she'd cared to admit. Her father, Jack, Dom, Renko…

"Your niece survived too." She finished. "She's in surgery right now but I could ask a doctor to check on her."

Strangely, it didn't relieve Eric. Dana's parents were still dead because of him. He wasn't sure if the shooting was random or if it was an attempt on his life, but in any cases it was _his_ _fault_. He had gotten home late and he had had to speed up to insure that his family would get at the airport at time to get their plane.

If he hadn't been late or if he hadn't been working for the NCIS, they would still be alive. He didn't answer Kensi but she took his silence as a hint and left the room. She had to tell the team Eric had made it.

The sun was still shining high in the sky of Los Angeles by the time he signed himself out of the hospital, against his doctor's advices.

* * *

_March 17th, 2017_

_Los Angeles International Airport._

"You look pale, Dad." The small girl said, looking worried.

"I know, honey, I just don't like planes." Eric lied, smiling to his niece. He had stopped correcting her when she called him her father a few years ago. It was still making him feel guilty. "Now let's go get our things before I lose you in the crowd."

"Do you think we could go to the beach?" she asked, taking her uncle's hand in her own.

"You will be disappointed, it's nothing like Nai Harn."

She looked dubious. "Then why are we here?"

"I'm here to see an old friend and then we will go back home."

"Could we go to Disneyland, at least?" she suggested. "I know you have been to Disneyland before with your friends!"

"We'll see." Eric sighed, amused in the knowledge that he couldn't refuse his little girl anything.

After getting back theirs luggage, Eric hailed a taxi and directed the driver to the hotel where he had booked a room.

* * *

_March 17th, 2017._

_NCIS Office of Special Projects, Los Angeles._

"I got a hit on Eric's niece's passport." Nell Jones announced, astonished by her discovery. "She has been traveling with a man named Hoban Washburn."

_Oh Eric,_ she thought, _you'd be so proud to see someone understand your references._

"He took a plane from Bangkok to LAX and if I believe his credit card, he booked a hotel room in Los Angeles for five days." She continued, seeing the team's perplexed expression.

"Maybe he's finally back." Deeks said, already rejoiced by the idea of seeing his good friend again.

"Let's not get our hopes so high. Nell, can you get me Eric's sister's birthday?"

"Sure thing. Just let me – It's in two days." She could see what Callen had meant. Eric wasn't here to reapply to the OSP, which was a real shame. Nell could have used the help especially since every tech that had tried to replace him had asked for a reassignment after a few days. And the team had missed his cheerful smile, his stupid whistle, and more than anything, they had missed the bright genius of his skills.

"We shouldn't go after him." Sam intervened. "He left for a reason and he wants us to respect it." He understood Eric's motives for leaving. After what Siderov had done to him… He had considered giving up, leaving the OSP.

"We could really use some help, you know. We need some help to find Kensi and Eric's the best." Nate pointed out. "Nell and I should go talk to him."

"I don't know if he will want to see you, Doc. He left for a good reason." Sam argued again. "We should respect his choices, even if we need him. We can't force him into helping us."

"What about a phone call? It's not intrusive into his new life and if he doesn't want to speak with us, he will just have to hang up." Nell objected. She wanted him back, Eric was her best friend and no one would ever replace him. "I can get the hotel's number in a second."

There was an hesitating silence, before Callen spoke up.

"Then get the number." He told Nell, before turning to the rest of the team. "Nate, you talk to him, you're the psychologist and you can convince him into helping us."

"Wait, you want Nate to manipulate him?" Sam asked, angry. "We're not even sure he will answer the phone and you already want to manipulate him?"

"We don't have much of a choice, Sam." Nate remarked. He agreed with Callen, it didn't matter if he had to manipulate Eric, they had to get him back or Kensi was dead. Eric had skills no one else had and they needed it, as cold and heartless it could seem. "You don't have to like it -I know I don't- but it's _Kensi_, we _can't_ let her die."

Sam sighed and closed his eyes for a minute. Nate was right. "Alright. Let's get him back."

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I still can't believe this started as a drabble about Eric leaving the OSP and Kensi and Nate being sad about it. Did anyone catch the Firefly/Serenity reference? Virtually cookies to you.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note** : Hey guys ! Before you start yelling at me, let me explain why I couldn't update this story. First, I got robbed. They took my computer and as a student working in a fast-food, I don't have a lot of time on my hands to rewrite everything and Nina's in her final exams in high-school so neither of us had time to rewrite the twelve chapters this fiction had. But now we do! Yay! Also my boyfriend proposed to me yesterday and I'm kinda ecstatic right now.

Right, enough personal life rambling, let's see how well Nate deals with Eric. (That was mostly sarcasm. Also I needed to tell people my boyfriend –fiancé?- is the best.)

Warning for emotional manipulation (that's not a nice thing to do, Mr. Getz), mentions of a miscarriage and I think it's all for this chapter.

* * *

**Epilogue**

**Chapter 2.**

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_For those who still can recall, the desperate colors of fall_

_The sweet caresses of May, only in poems remain_

_No one recites them these days for the shame_

_So what if nothing is safe, so what if no one is saved_

_No matter how sweet, no matter how brave_

_What if each to his own lonely grave?_

_The Sword &amp; the Pen, Regina Spektor_

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Nate didn't call the number Nell gave him_. If we want him back, we have to go get him, _he thought. But Nate didn't know what he expected when he knocked on the door. Getting punched in the face, hugged, yelled at. He never was good at predicting his –former- friend's reaction. He still isn't because he would never have guessed what happened next.

The door opened on a small blue-eyed girl. Eric's niece, Dana, Nate thought.

"Who are you?" she asked, curious.

"My name's Nate, I want to speak with your-" he began, kneeling down to be at her height. The last thing he wanted was to frighten her.

"Go play in your room, Dana." The psychologist heard a strangely familiar voice say. He looked up to see Eric leading the girl to her own bedroom before he came back to the door. "I'm not coming back, whatever you have to say, I'm done. Don't waste your time."

"I'm not here to ask you to come back." Nate said. Okay, that was a kind of a lie. They needed Eric back, at least until Kensi was sound and safe back in the States. After, he could do whatever his heart desired, for all they cared. Another lie.

"Then why are you here?" Eric inquired.

"Nell told me you were back in Los Angeles and I hoped we could talk."

"Talk? About what? We have nothing to talk about anymore, Nate." Eric scoffed. He had given up on his old friendships a long time ago. It hurt less this way.

"I understood why you left." Nate replied. This was going to be awful, to actually tell someone about this and all the consequences it had on him. It was even more awful to use it to convince Eric to come back. It made Nate felt sick. But there were no leads on Kensi's whereabouts and everyone was starting to abandon hope. Even Hetty. He had read it in her look when she left for Greece two days before.

"Come in." Eric sighed, giving up. Something was wrong with Nate and no matter what Eric told himself every day since he decided to leave, he still cared about the team. _Of course he did_.

"Rose and I, we've always been serious about our relationship. So we got married, two years ago. It was perfect. The wonderful kind of marriage. And one day, we began to talk about children. She wanted two, a girl and a boy. I didn't really care if we had a girl or a boy, you know. I just wanted to do this with her, the whole baby thing. And after a few weeks, she actually got pregnant and it was- it was amazing and we were so happy, we were going to have a baby and-"

The psychologist interrupted himself, shaking his head like he wanted to chase those memories away.

And suddenly, Eric knew where this was going. "I'm sorry, Nate." He winced. "I didn't know-"

"Of course you didn't.." Nate said softly. "You had to leave, I understand, you were in pain and it was like nothing mattered anymore. But you can't just dismiss the family you have left just because you're hurting. It's not fair. Not to them, not to yourself. We need you, Eric. Kensi's been kidnapped."

_So you lied._

"You're here to make me change my mind, aren't you?"

"I'm doing what's necessary."

"I know. And you're right. I was wrong to leave like I did. I don't regret it and I'm not coming back, not permanently, at least. We get Kensi back and I go back to Thailand."

Nate wasn't in position to argue. They needed Eric to find Kensi and if he wanted to throw everything away when Kensi was back, safe and sound, he had every right to do so.

"But I have to introduce you to someone first." Eric said, with his old cheerful smile back on. "Val!" he called out and a groan was heard a few seconds later before a red-headed woman in her mid-thirties exited the main bedroom.

"What's going on?" She asked, yawning and Nate could hear an heavy Russian accent in her voice.

"Human beings, Valeria. Say hi."

"Hi?" The woman –Valeria- repeated, obviously still half-asleep before she noticed Nate was in the room. "You could have warn me your old friends were coming!"

"He didn't know I was coming." Nate answered. "Hi." He waved at her.

Eric sighed, still smiling. "Nate, meet my wife, Valeria."

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Here we are again! Sorry for the short chapter, as we lost all our files, I tried to rewrite this chapter like I remembered it and I don't remember everything, alas. Don't forget to tell us what you think!


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